


One of many times where Sungyeol ruined Sunggyu's life

by hamstergyu



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alien Princes, Fluff, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-24
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-02-10 04:30:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2010975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamstergyu/pseuds/hamstergyu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kim Sunggyu was not a social butterfly.  But with Sungyeol and his non-stop chatter tucked under his friend belt, he managed to get by with mediocre social skills.  And on the rare occasion a lull in conversation arose, Dongwoo’s laughter closed the gap.  Other than his lighter-than-normal natural shade of caramel hair, Sunggyu liked to think his life was as normal and dull as can be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Not beta'ed yet 
> 
> I don't even know where this came from but it wasn't supposed to be this big...and it's not even done yet

Kim Sunggyu was not a social butterfly.  But with Sungyeol and his non-stop chatter tucked under his friend belt, he managed to get by with mediocre social skills.  And on the rare occasion a lull in conversation arose, Dongwoo’s laughter closed the gap.  Other than his lighter-than-normal natural shade of caramel hair, Sunggyu liked to think his life was as normal and dull as can be.

Until Sungyeol felt the need to broaden their large circle of friends (apparently their small little trio was not large enough for his tastes).  “Because you’re boring, Kim Sunggyu,” he snaps when Sunggyu asks _why_ on earth he would even want new friends when he was blessed with his presence?

“That’s Hyung to you,” Sunggyu spits through stuffed cheeks.  Bits of rice fling out of his mouth onto Sungyeol’s face, and it makes the older smile in triumph.  “Besides, people at this school are really boring, I’m as interesting as they get.”

Sunggyu narrows his eyes when Dongwoo laughs so hard chocolate milk pours out of his nose.  Sungyeol takes a long sip out of his coffee can and pointedly looks at Dongwoo.  “I rest my case,”

Sunggyu growls, “Unless you want to be oh-so-educated in the non-existent love-life of every idiot that goes to this school,” he jerks his head to a group of red-faced giggling idiots ogling over the wrestling captain (his name was Lee Howon, Sunggyu thought he was a cool enough guy.  He wouldn’t mind talking to him if he didn’t have girls groveling at his feet.) “You won’t find anyone interesting to talk to,”

Sungyeol slams his fist onto the table.  It startles Dongwoo, but Sunggyu leisurely sips his juice box while resting his head against his elbow, “Giving yourself bruises doesn’t help prove a point, Yeol,” 

“Well who says they HAVE to go to this school?  The old grumpy cat lady next door to our apartment is moving out soon, my mom said so,” He smiles, “Maybe a cool university student will move in,”

Sunggyu snorts, “There’s no university close to here.”  Sungyeol narrows his eyes.  “But to humor you, what ‘cool-university-student’ is gonna talk to _high schoolers?”_  

“Sometimes I prefer the grumpy cat lady to you,” Sungyeol hisses.

Sunggyu sucks hard on the straw until his juice box is crumpled up in his hand.   With a smile he knocks it against Sungyeol’s head, “Sometimes I prefer a dead rat to you, but I don’t say those things out loud, do I?”

“YAH! Kim Sunggyu!”

“That’s Hyung to you,”  Sunggyu smiles so wide his eyes disappear and speed-walks out of the lunch room before Sungyeol’s and his burning rage can catch up to him.

* * *

 

“Gyu Hyung, this is Myungsoo and his brother Woohyun,” Sungyeol flashes his gummy smile and Sunggyu blinks. 

Both of the new additions have a piercing gaze and a firm frown curved onto their lips.  Myungsoo seems more docile with his hands leisurely dug into his pockets.   Woohyun, however, taps his foot on the pavement and keeps his arms crossed over his chest.  Sunggyu finds them both horrendously intimidating. 

He offers a quip hello and turns to Sungyeol, demanding answers with his eyes, “They moved in next door!”  His chipper attitude doesn’t falter, despite Sunggyu’s desperate attempt to glare him down.  “They go to school here now and I thought we could use some more friends, don’t you think Hyung?”

He curses Sungyeol and the fake innocence in his eyes.  He’s totally pretending that Sunggyu’s not even looking at him.  

Sunggyu doesn’t want to be rude.  He may not like the idea of socializing so bright and early (or any time of day, for that matter) but if Sungyeol insists on more friends, he’s not going to scare them away.   He smiles softly and holds a hand to Myungsoo (Woohyun’s stance sends shivers down his spine) “I’m Sunggyu,” 

Myungsoo’s gaze does not falter, but he does shake Sunggyu’s hands and responds with a simple “Myungsoo.”   His hand is unnaturally warm and Sunggyu ponders about this even when he pulls back.  The thought is pushed to the back of his mind when Dongwoo joins them with half a piece of toast sticking out of his mouth. 

“’Morning!”  He waves vigorously and Sunggyu does his best not to cringe when crumbs fly all over.  

Sungyeol perks up and starts his introduction game again.  Like Sungyeol, Dongwoo readily accepts the foreigners and Sunggyu thinks he really must not be a people person. 

“Myungsoo’s in the same grade as me, and Woohyun’s in your grade,” he motions to Dongwoo and Sunggyu.  Sunggyu nods while Dongwoo vigorously bobs his head in excitement.   “I think he’s in your class, Hyung,” he gestures at Sunggyu again.

Sunggyu looks at Woohyun and the painted smile he’s been wearing falters for a split second.  He reminds himself to keep it intact despite the hard glare.  “Do you need me to show you the classroom?” 

Myungsoo answers for him, though Woohyun’s eyes never leave him.  “We have to see the principal first; new-student stuff.”

Sunggyu smiles and waves to Myungsoo, still too terrified to look Woohyun in the eye and turns to Sungyeol.  “You are such a butt face,” he hisses. 

Sungyeol smiles smugly as the trio enter the school and start their trek towards Sunggyu’s locker (which is really where all three of their belongings are smashed into – it’s the closest one to their classes, after all).   “I don’t know what you mean; I _told_ you I’d find new friends, Dongwoo’s happy about it, right?”

Dongwoo responds by throwing his arm around Sunggyu’s shoulder.  “Lighten up Hyung, don’t be so grumpy,” he tugs at the corner of Sunggyu’s lips and laughs as the older grumbled.  If it weren’t Dongwoo, Sunggyu would smack the offender’s hand away and maybe even flip him off ( _especially_ if it were Sungyeol).  But Dongwoo’s a sensitive little baby and would be devastated for an entire day – which, for Dongwoo, is a lot. 

“Yea yea,” he groans, “But did you _have_ to pick the people that look like they’re going to eat us alive with just a stare?  That Woohyun guy gives me the creeps,” he visibly shudders for emphasis.

“Oh relax,” Sungyeol throws his arm over Sunggyu’s shoulder too.   With him, however, Sunggyu does not hesitate to rip it off. 

Sungyeol snarls and sticks his tongue out just before Sunggyu enters his classroom.  “You’re a jerk,” he snaps and Sunggyu only tosses him a smile and the middle finger for good measure.  

His first class of the day is Korean history – a terrible way to start in his opinion.  It’s a feat to stay awake class and even as the teacher walks in claiming to have an important announcement, Sunggyu feels his eyes getting droopy.  “We’re having a new student join our class today.”

Sunggyu doesn’t really care much.  That is, until he puts two and two together. 

“Please pick any seat you like, Woohyun.” 

_Shit._

Sunggyu hates destiny and karma and everything that gave him such rotten luck when Nam Woohyun picks, of _all_ the empty seats in the classroom, the empty desk attached to his.   It’s not really something he shouldn’t have expected, after all Sunggyu was the closest thing Woohyun could call a friend in the stuffy little classroom.  Though, he thinks, Woohyun wouldn’t have much trouble getting along with the girls ogling at him from across the room.

“Hey,” Sunggyu splutters.   Woohyun tosses him a sideways glance and hums in acknowledgement.   He doesn’t know what to do after that – restoring gaps in conversations is Dongwoo’s job.  So he doesn’t do anything.  And their conversation dies before it has the chance to start. 

Sunggyu tries taking notes.  He tries.  He really does.  But Nam Woohyun sitting next to him with his arms folded and that trade-mark frown glued on his lips is a distracting sight.    He wonders if he doesn’t have paper (what new student comes _that_ unprepared) and he _almost_ asks if he’d like to borrow some.    Just when Sunggyu opens his mouth, the teacher beats him to it.  “Is something wrong Woohyun?”

 Woohyun does not look at the teacher though.  He turns and stares directly at Sunggyu, his eyes are just as piercing as earlier and Sunggyu tries to not to quake in fear.  “No.”   He responds sourly. 

“Well,” the teacher sounds peeved off, Sunggyu notes, and he rips his gaze from Woohyun to see her with her arms crossed and a scowl on her face.  “Usually its customary to take notes in a class, unless of course you are oh-so educated in Korean history?”

The class is dead silent when Woohyun final turns his head and gives her a challenging stare.  “No, I’m not,” Woohyun sighs and for the first time, Sunggyu sees actual emotion in his eyes.  It looks a hell of a lot like mockery.   Is that an emotion?  Sunggyu thinks it should be.   “But, if someone were wise enough to check their e-mail, they would learn that today is a day to let me get settled in, thank you,” 

Sunggyu can’t stop his jaw from dropping when Woohyun nonchalantly folds his arms across his desk and puts his head down.   He steals a look to find old Mrs. Han red-faced and furious.  However, she doesn’t show her anger in anything more than a huff.

Sunggyu turns his attention away from Woohyun – this surely is going to be one exciting school year.

* * *

 

Sunggyu sifts through his locker for his water bottle.  He grumbles under his breath, it was signed by the leader of Nell when Sunggyu accidentally encountered him while buying milk for his mother.  It was all he had on him at the time, and his idol had gladly signed it. 

He whips out his phone to dial Sungyeol’s number, and is prepared to start yelling furiously, but he doesn’t think Sungyeol would stoop _that_ low.   He resolves for checking back in his classroom, if it’s not there, Sungyeol’s getting an earful.

He vaguely sees people moving in the window when he approaches and grimaces at the thought of having to confront people.  But, anything for his signed water bottle.   The closer he gets, he realizes it’s Woohyun.   And…the ceiling is leaking….into his mouth.  Sunggyu squints his eyes, no that’s not the ceiling, it’s…

Sunggyu stifles a gasp.  

The water bottle he came back for is suspended in air, a small stream pouring into Woohyun’s mouth.  

There’s a small greenish glow surrounding both his favorite water bottle and Woohyun’s palm, and it makes Sunggyu’s stomach churn.

His body tenses and he feels his limbs itching to sprint, but he’s too afraid of making a commotion and he’s too afraid Woohyun’s going to come after him.    Sunggyu mentally measures the distance between Sungyeol’s home and the school, but his thoughts are too jumbled to think properly. 

Is he some kind of monster?  If so, what if Woohyun has super speed too?  What if he catches Sunggyu and murders him and buries him in a ditch and tells Sungyeol he moved to Japan?   What if he’s some sort of genetically mutated science experiment that escaped and is trying to pass off as a normal boy?  What if he eats him? 

What _is_ he?

Sunggyu holds his breath and backs away as slowly as he can.   Unfortunately, his head collides with a row of lockers lined against the wall he doesn’t remember being there.   A small whimper tumbles out of his lips and he closes his eyes for a moment to blink off the throbbing in his head. 

When he opens them, a scream catches in his throat.   Woohyun’s _not_ happy.   He takes careful steps in Sunggyu’s direction, but the elder jumps to his feet and holds his hands out in front of him as a peace offering.  “I-I swear I didn’t see a-anything.”  

Woohyun cocks an eyebrow, “Oh really now?”  Sunggyu nods vigorously, but Woohyun isn’t buying it.  “Listen, Sunggyu-“

Sunggyu doesn’t give him the chance to explain.  He bolts down the hallway instead, faster than he ever thought his lazy legs could go, and desperately hopes he can get out of the school before Woohyun goes on a rampage and rips his head off with his teeth (Sunggyu pictures them sharpened and glistening, like werewolf teeth, but the image is just as much attractive as it is terrifying).   

He flees into a busy street loaded with people and Ahjumma’s urging him to buy some street food.  Sunggyu’s stomach is gurgling with fear and he doesn’t think he can keep more than a glass of water down currently so he politely turns them down and heads over to Sungyeol’s while still speed-walking. 

Sunggyu casts nervous glances over his shoulder; his small eyes are alert and weary.   He’s barely a block away from Sungyeol’s building, but he still isn’t so sure he’ll make it. “I’m going to die.”  He whispers to himself, holding back sobs.  “I haven’t even finished high school and I’m going to _die_ ,” 

“Gyu Hyung?”  An involuntary, gurgled sound of joy escapes his throat when he sees Sungyeol standing ten feet away.  He’s got grocery bags covering his arms and a lollipop stick hanging out of his mouth but Sunggyu is too overjoyed to care.

 “Yeol, we _need_ to go to your apartment _now_ ,” Sunggyu wastes no time and starts dragging Sungyeol by the arm.  But he has the arm-strength of a hamster, and Sungyeol easily pulls away. 

“I have more shopping to do…”  Sunggyu sees the mischievous glint in his eyes and he has no idea how to tell Sungyeol this isn’t time to mess with him.  

“Yeol, _please_!”  He begs.

Sungyeol’s ears wrap around the desperation in his Hyung’s voice. “What did you do?”  He cocks an eyebrow and much to Sunggyu’s horror, stays rooted to one spot.  “I’m not letting a murderer into my house.  My mom’s not even home yet and I don’t wanna die young,”

Sunggyu growls and stomps off, “Fuck you Lee Sungyeol!”    He vaguely recalls there’s a spare key buried deep in the soil of the Hydrangeas basket hanging off the hook of Sungyeol’s front door. 

“Geez Hyung wait up!”  Sungyeol finally grasps the situation requires a bit of seriousness and runs after Sunggyu (even with the heavy grocery bags weighing him down, it doesn’t take him much to catch up.)   “What’s happening?” 

Sunggyu thanks the lord that Sungyeol’s finally gained half a brain to realize something is seriously wrong.  “It’s….” he snarls out the next part, “ _Your_ new friends.”

“Myungsoo?”  Sungyeol shrieks with disbelief, his loud voice booming.  Sunggyu slaps him and demands he whisper with his eyes.  “What could that goofball possibly do?”  Sungyeol questions, much quieter. 

If Sunggyu wasn’t so scared, he’d feel a tinge of jealousy that Sungyeol is already so close to refer to Myungsoo as “that goofball”.  But he’s terrified and fears his death is around the corner, so he pushes the thought away to ponder in the afterlife.    “I don’t have time to explain right now, can you just…let me hide out in your apartment?” 

He asks out of courtesy, but he’s already punching in the building code anyway.  “Well I don’t have a choice,” Sungyeol snorts.    Sunggyu ignores him and yanks him up the stairs, “Dude, you’re gonna make me drop everything, I almost dropped a gallon of milk!”

Sunggyu hisses, “You know what they say, no use crying over spilt milk,”

“Ha, you’re just _so_ fu– is that Woohyun?”

Sunggyu shrieks and his heartbeat skyrockets.   He follows Sungyeol’s gaze out the second floor window to find that Woohyun is indeed heading towards this building.

“My life is over!”  He groans. 

“Such a drama queen,” Sungyeol clicks his tongue and unlocks the door to his small apartment.  It’s just his brother, him and his mom, so it isn’t anything glorious.  “The best hiding spot is inside the washing machine, Daeyeollie used that one all the time when we were kids,”    

“This isn’t fucking hide-and-seek!”  Sunggyu growls, whacking him on the arm with enough force to make Sungyeol hiss in pain, “I’m not gonna fit in that!” 

“Well do you expect to hide behind the couch and _not_ be found?  Why are you even running anyway?!”  Sungyeol snaps.    Sunggyu points to the cupboard beneath the sink and doesn’t bother with the rest of Sungyeol’s questions. “So you’ll fit in that and not the washing machine?!”  

“Just empty it out!” 

* * *

 

He squishes himself deeper into the corner when he hears Sungyeol open the door.  He can’t quite catch what Woohyun is saying but he hears Sungyeol invite him in and then talk loud enough for him.  “You’re looking for Sunggyu?”   He feels his heart hammering against his ribs and he fears Woohyun will follow the sound and find him (and then tear him to shreds and cook him up in a giant soup pot).  

“He…I…yes,” Woohyun sighs and runs his fingers through his hair.  Sungyeol notes he looks exhausted.   “I think I’ve scared him.” 

Sunggyu almost laughs out loud.  

Sungyeol does it for him, “He’s an easy one to scare, don’t worry too much about it.  He’ll be fine by tomorrow.”   Sungyeol moves to shut the door, but Woohyun’s foot stops him. 

“I would like to speak with him now.”   He deadpans.

“Oh um well his house is-“

“I know he’s here Sungyeol.”   Sunggyu feels his heart pounding against his chest and with all the blood rushing in his ears; he’s surprised it hasn’t spilled out and created a small red puddle to leak out the crack in the cabinet.   Sungyeol’s not sure what to say next.  He makes this clear by opening and closing his mouth several times until Woohyun speaks again.  “Just move.” 

Sunggyu at _least_ expects Woohyun to scavenge around the small apartment.   After all, the most reasonable hiding place would not be stuffed up under the kitchen cupboard.  The only reason Sunggyu managed to squeeze himself inside was because he and Sungyeol dumped all the junk piled underneath into his bathtub (it took two trips and many apologies from Sungyeol about his pack-rat of a mother). 

He squeaks when Woohyun yanks the door open and is crouched on the ground and staring at him with those cold eyes.   “We need to talk.”

Sunggyu swallows his fear and holds his ground, “I swear I won’t tell and we can pretend this didn’t happen.  I don’t want an explanation or anything, I really won’t tell.”  He’s babbling but he doesn’t care, Woohyun _needs_ to know.

“But I want to explain it to you.”

Sunggyu blinks.   The coldness in Woohyun’s eyes is there, but it flickers, and a trace of warmth lingers.   “W-Why?”  He squeaks (he tries to sound quizzing and nonchalant, but the fear won’t allow it) “I haven’t known you for more than a day,” 

“I…yea, but you…” he glances up at Sungyeol and sighs, “You _two_ are the only people we’ve actually interacted with on this planet.  You’re all we have.” 

“….on this planet,”   Sungyeol mumbles with a snort before he leisurely drops onto the couch.  Sunggyu finally crawls out of his hiding place and makes a beeline to squish himself as close to Sungyeol as possible, as if the taller, lanky male can stop an alien from ripping his hamster head off.

Woohyun smiles, “Let me call Myungsoo, and we can-“

“You picked _aliens_ to be our friends?” Sunggyu hisses in as low of a voice as he can muster and jabs Sungyeol in the side with a scowl on face (it proves to fail when Woohyun clears his throat after being rudely interrupted).  He ignores him still and continually attacks Sungyeol’s ribs while the he squirms and tries to smack his hand away, “You are never allowed to make new friends ever again!”

Woohyun takes a deep breath and rubs his temples in annoyance, “Can  you please not ignore me so we can talk about this?”

“No.” Sunggyu says flatly . 

Sungyeol who’s been silent this whole time (other than his futile attempts to stop Sunggyu from attacking his side) clears his throat, “Um…Hyung are you buying this?” 

Sunggyu sees Sungyeol’s skeptical expression and he doesn’t blame him.  If Sunggyu hadn’t seen Woohyun drink out of his water bottle with his own eyes, he wouldn’t have believed this himself.   “I just believe what I saw,” he whispers.  “Which I _didn’t_ see, if it’ll get you off our case,” he swallows the fear and looks to Woohyun, but the boy has his eyes narrowed and shakes his head.  No it will _not_ get him off their case, Sunggyu guesses.

Sungyeol rolls his eyes, “Excuse me,” he stands, “But I didn’t sign up for this bullshit.  So I’ll be going.” Sunggyu scrambles to his feet too (he is in NO mood to be left in the room alone with Woohyun). 

“No you won’t be.”   Myungsoo strolls through Sungyeol’s front door (which no one quite remembered to close) and shuts it behind him.  “We’ve got a lot of explaining to do, and you’ve got a lot of listening.”

Sunggyu almost shrieks when his feet are hovering over Sungyeol’s freshly polished wood floor.  He doesn’t though; he doesn’t have the voice too.  He half expects Myungsoo to drop him in a pot of boiling water for his dinner tonight. 

Instead, Myungsoo gently places him (and Sungyeol, who’s face has gone ghostly pale) on the couch and takes a seat beside Sungyeol.  It takes him a total of three second to screech like a banshee and push himself into Sunggyu.

Unlike Woohyun’s permanent frown, Myungsoo chuckles, “Wouldn’t you just give us a chance?”

His eyes still pierce into his soul, but an odd bit of warmth emits from them and Sunggyu has the urge to say yes.  “Don’t trance them!”  Woohyun hisses from behind and the warmth is replaced by utter terror because _HOLY SHIT HE TRIED TO PUT ME UNDER A SPELL I AM GOING TO DIE._  

Sunggyu tries to grab Sungyeol and bolt, but a heavy, invisible weight holds him in place.  “Listen Sunggyu Hyung,” Myungsoo’s steely eyes hold no warmth now, only the signature coldness that Sunggyu’s used to.   “We wouldn’t, but we _can_ kill you if we wanted too.  So if you would please _listen,_ it would be nice.”

Myungsoo doesn’t need to put him in a trance to get him to reluctantly nod. 

Myungsoo sends Woohyun off to make some iced tea and he begins.   By the time Woohyun returns, they’ve already learned a lot.   Woohyun, supposedly, is a prince on a planet located in some galaxy whose name Sunggyu didn’t bother to memorize (Loowim?  Woomil?  He didn’t really care, anyway).   Woohyun, supposedly, was allowed a year off (or, at least, in Earth time it is a year, over there it’s no more than a month or two) before he must return and engage in princely duties.  

Woohyun chose earth because it is easy for them to alter their DNA into a human (Myungsoo offered to show him what they _really_ looked like, to which Sunggyu politely declined, he didn’t need nightmares).  And because time runs quite differently over there, both Woohyun and Myungsoo are over hundreds of years old.  Myungsoo’s voice falls silent when Woohyun places four large cups of iced tea before them.

The silence sits for a moment before Sungyeol chokes out his voice, “So what can you _do?_ ”  He swallows a large gulp of tea that makes his throat itch, “I mean, that we can’t,” 

Sungyeol takes another large sip of tea (Sunggyu waits; he sees a mischievous glint in Myungsoo’s eyes). “Well, for starters, _this,_ ” 

Sungyeol shrieks and spits his tea everywhere when Myungsoo uses his eyes to lift his own cup.   Sungyeol starts coughing and sputtering and Myungsoo ends up putting his tea cup down before even taking a sip (Sunggyu _thinks_ he sees a faint flicker of concern, but Myungsoo tried to trance him – whatever the hell that means – and he’s not too fond of him anymore).   “Sorry,” he smiles sheepishly, “A warning would’ve been nice.” 

Sunggyu pats Sungyeol’s back until he recovers; his lanky body is almost entirely on his lap.   “We can also shift into different forms, by acquiring the DNA of our subjects, which is why we’re using the bodies we have now,” Woohyun explained.

“So you mean there’s another Nam Woohyun out there, _right now?_ ”  Sunggyu hisses; fear prickling up his spine. What if they tried to steal his identity, _too?_

“Not…exactly,” Myungsoo chuckles and tosses him an apologetic smile and that makes Sunggyu’s brain scream.   “The humans we took are now being nurtured on our home planet,”

Myungsoo also urges that they treat them based on the ages of the identities they’ve assumed (Sunggyu thinks ‘stolen’ is a better word to use). 

“So you’re kidnappers?!”  Sungyeol’s so close to Sunggyu that the elder is starting to have trouble breathing without in-taking a mouth full of Sungyeol’s strawberry shampoo.  

“They were willing to come,” Woohyun snarls darkly, in a way that makes Sunggyu shudder.  “We would not take someone against their own will,”

“I don’t see what this has to do with us,” Sunggyu voices out bravely (he resists the urge recoil and apologize when Myungsoo shots him a saddened look) “You go on and enjoy your time here on earth and we’ll just sit through a year in high school,” he waves his hand towards the door urgently, hoping they’ll march out this very second.  

“We…wanted some friends,” Myungsoo utters sheepishly and cutely scratches the back of his neck and avoiding eye contact with two utterly confused humans.   Surely two aliens from a different planet didn’t fly light years to make _friends_?

Sunggyu thinks Myungsoo’s trying to put him under a spell again, but Woohyun’s hard glare convinces him otherwise.   And he does feel slightly more at ease even if Myungsoo’s pulling something (it got Sungyeol off his lap, anyway, though he is still remarkably close). “If you want to make friends, then stop staring at people like you’re going to eat them,” he pointedly raises an eyebrow at Woohyun.

Myungsoo’s laugh crackles in the air, and soon he’s holding his stomach and is rolling around Sungyeol’s carpet.  Woohyun’s eyes are widened and he looks at Sunggyu as if he’d just crumpled up his pride and thrown it out the window of Sungyeol’s third-floor apartment.  Sunggyu smiles awkwardly while Myungsoo rolls around breathlessly; it wasn’t _that_ funny.

“First running away, and then insulting him?  The prince is sure getting a lot of firsts out of you, Sunggyu Hyung,” Myungsoo chokes out between breaths.  

Sunggyu gives him a shaky chuckle. He eyes Woohyun’s eyes maneuver the cup of tea to his hands and sighs,   “Yea well, you’re giving us a good number of firsts, too.” 

* * *

 

Sunggyu collapses on Sungyeol’s couch and closes his eyes while trying to block out Dongwoo’s screeches.  His head is pounding and the last thing he needs is to try to count how many laws of physics are being broken just watching Myungsoo juggle a water bottle and three oranges mid-air with just his mind. 

Three weeks passed since the water bottle incident.  And because they were the first humans to befriend them (Sunggyu calls bullshit on that, he’s convinced it’s because he _saw_ them),  Myungsoo decided the two of them would merge into their friend group.   He even provided them a list – it was supposed to make them feel at ease, but it just made Sunggyu’s stomach flip more often.

**A list of things we can do and you can’t**

**By: Kim Myungsoo**

  1. **Control stuff with our minds (the bigger it is, the harder)**
  2. **Lull people into a state of relaxation (trancing, we call it)**
  3. **Shape shift (our real bodies are prettier!)**
  4. **Create entire worlds to disappear to in our minds (but only to play in – like a dream)**
  5. **Follow the heat signature given off by living things - we rock at hide and seek! (;**
  6. **Kill you.  :D**



Sunggyu assumes the last one was meant to be a joke, but it still gives him the jitters every time he thinks about it.

He whines when a pillow lands on his face (courtesy of Lee Sungyeol, of course) and he’s torn from his thoughts.  “Quit being a sourpuss and socialize!”  Sungyeol hisses collapses on his knees.

“Get off, my head hurts,” he smacks the giraffe aimlessly, but gives up and adjusts to the new weight.

“Leave him alone,” Sunggyu looks up when the pillow is pulled off his face and stares straight into the cold, calculating eyes of Nam Woohyun. 

“It’s fine,” Sunggyu gulps.  (Woohyun still scares the shit out of him, but he’s managed to make it unnoticeable…almost).  He makes a move to sit up but a gentle hand on his shoulder pushes him back down.  Sunggyu looks up to see gentleness in Woohyun’s eyes; something he finds very rarely.  

“No, your eyes are red, how long did you sleep last night?”  Sunggyu fails to notice that Woohyun’s sudden burst of concern has garnered attention from Myungsoo. 

“I don’t know, not long,” he admits nervously.  “I didn’t really understand the material on that test today, so I stayed up late to study,” he leaves out that it didn’t help much at all, and he still most likely failed.  He also leaves out that studying turned into watching a mix of funny cat and Nell videos on YouTube – some things Woohyun just doesn’t need to know.

The frown on Woohyun’s face deepens and his eyebrows crease together, “You should take a nap,” he advises.   Sunggyu lamely waves his hand towards Dongwoo (who’s still squealing, and now inspecting the oranges even though Myungsoo’s attention is fully on the two of them).   “Come to our place, it’s quiet,” 

“Y-Your place?”  Sunggyu vaguely recalls that Woohyun lives right next door.  “I don’t want to intrude,” he smiles softly. _I don’t want to be your dinner._

Woohyun’s already lifting him off the couch with his power while Myungsoo rummages around his pockets to find the keys and tosses them at Woohyun.   “You’re not, Soo’s hanging around here and I’ll just be doing my homework anyway,”

Sunggyu agrees, reluctantly, but he does.  

He rubs his red eyes aimlessly while Woohyun leads them into his apartment.  “Do all humans rub their eyes like that?” 

“Hm?”  Sunggyu blinks and glances at Woohyun to find him looking at him with a touch of sadness lingering in his voice.  “Just when they’re tired I think,” he shrugs his shoulders.

Woohyun swallows and gestures Sunggyu to follow him.  “You can take my bed, I’m just gonna sit here and work on homework.”  Woohyun knocks on his wooden desk for emphasis. 

Sunggyu nods, he thinks it’s going to take him ages to fall asleep.  A potential alien killer is right next to him working on calculus problems after all. 

Surprisingly, it doesn’t take him any time at all.   Next thing he knows, something is gently shaking him.  “Sunggyu? Hey…Sunggyu?” 

His mind is still half-asleep and he automatically assumes it must be Dongwoo.  “Leave me alone Woo, just five more minutes,” he grumbles, snuggling deeper into the thick covers.  He graciously accepts the sound of silence until it’s replaced with a deep chuckle and he realizes.

_Shit._

“I thought you were Dongwoo!”  Sunggyu shoots up and narrowly avoids knocking heads with Woohyun.  The alien boy is smiling lightly (the most Sunggyu’s _ever_ gotten out of him).  His half-asleep mind makes him laugh and he decides to slowly take a step out of the Woohyun-is-a-monster-and-I-should-fear-him circle.  “You’re smiling; it’s a change from your usual face,”

Woohyun raises an eyebrow as Sunggyu pushes the covers off and stands to stretch.  “My usual face?” 

“Your face that looks like you want to conquer the world and eat puppies,” he deadpans. 

Woohyun narrows his eyes. “You’re sassier first thing you wake up,” he snorts.

Sunggyu smiles this time, “Not really, I’m just kinda sure you won’t boil me into soup if I piss you off now,”

“Are you _really_ sure about that?”  Woohyun smiles again.

“Of course” _…kinda._

* * *

 

“Sunggyu Hyung, I understand why you hate him,” Myungsoo whimpers when Sungyeol waves the cover of the DVD in front of his face.  There’s a woman with her head half-ripped off and blood spilling out of her neck (Sunggyu thinks it looks more like ketchup, though). 

But to Myungsoo, it looks like death.

“I told you Myung, Lee Sungyeol is the devil in disguise,” the boy in question snorts and whips a pillow at Sunggyu’s face.  

“And Kim Sunggyu is the biggest jerk on the planet,” he snaps, hopping over to pop the DVD in.  “Relax, it’s not _that_ bad,” he smiles evilly and watches Myungsoo melt into a puddle of pure terror as the movie starts.

Unfortunately for Sungyeol though, he is the victim of his own evil scheming.  Kim Myungsoo is a scaredy-cat, he learns that day. By the end of the night Sungyeol has butter in his hair, popcorn kernels down his shirt and is sore from the giant monkey whose grip on him is so hard he feels his arm bruising.

 “Never again,” Sungyeol whimpers, trying to shake off Myungsoo.  “Yah, get off of me! I don’t do skinship!”

“Stay on him, Soo!”  Sunggyu laughs, clapping his hands in glee. “Show that idiot what he deserves! It was his entire plot to scare you, are you gonna give him any satisfaction by letting him go?”

Myungsoo shakes his head and nuzzles it into Sungyeol’s chest.  “G-get off!”  Sungyeol shrieks, trying to wiggle free of Myungsoo’s iron grip while Sunggyu and Dongwoo are rolling around laughing. 

“Wow, the amount of love you have for your friend is amazing,” Woohyun drawls. 

Sunggyu manages to catch his breath and sit up, rubbing the tears out of his eyes.  Dongwoo is nowhere near calming down.   “I don’t love Sungyeol at all,” he explains, careful to keep his gaze away from Woohyun. 

Sunggyu hates to admit it, but he’s recently started to feel his stomach flip more often around Woohyun.  And it’s not the same flip as when he was scared –he’s gotten over that.   It’s the kind of flip that makes his insides all fuzzy and warm just because Woohyun smiled at him. 

Sunggyu’s a man, he can admit to himself that he may have a tiny little crush on Woohyun.  He won’t admit it to anyone else though, especially not Sungyeol, and no way in hell to Woohyun.  Sunggyu doesn’t know _anything_ about Woohyun though.   And that makes this crush dangerous.

He barely knows anything other than what Woohyun’s been prompted to tell him because of the water bottle incident.  But Woohyun knows so much about him and Sunggyu doesn’t like that.  He doesn’t even know his _name._  Not his real name, anyway.

Woohyun snorts, “That’s a lie,” he gives Sunggyu a knowing smile which makes the elder frown.

“Don’t tell him,” he grumbles.  “It’ll go right to his big head and I’ll never hear the end of it,” 

Sunggyu closes his eyes and leans back against the couch, but his head is pulled downward instead.  He  opens one eye and glares at Woohyun.  He laughs and gently shuts it with his finger,  “Myungsoo spilled soda there earlier, unless you want your hair to be all sticky, I suggest you don’t,”

Sunggyu hummed and tried to ignore his speeding heart-rate.  Friends did this all the time, he’d have to go alone to seem normal.  That’s the _only_ reason he went along.   He had to bite his cheeks to keep a smile contained when Woohyun began playing with the strands of his hair, though.  “What are you doing?” He couldn’t help but laugh.

“Nothing,”  Woohyun shrugged, “One of my friends back home really liked it whenever I played with his hair, don’t humans like that kind of stuff?”

“Yea but…”  _But it’s usually a couple thing to do._ “You had a friend that was a human?”  Sunggyu stopped himself and changed the subject as quickly as he could.

“I did,”  his eyes were still closed, but he could hear the strain in Woohyun’s voice and he stopped playing with his hair.   Sunggyu opened his eyes and heard the sound of a shower running (probably Sungyeol washing out the butter) and  his gaze met Myungsoo, who was staring at the two of them with a hint of a frown.   Dongwoo obliviously tried to build a castle out of popcorn kernels (no one bothered to tell him he was setting himself up for failure, you don’t tell Dongwoo those things.)  “He left, though.”

“Left where, here? Did you come here to look for him?”  Sunggyu doesn’t think much of his curiosity, he’s only trying to make small talk.

But Myungsoo shuffles to his feet quickly.  “I think we should be heading home,”  he says stiffly. This garners the attention of Dongwoo who darts his eyes between the three of them giving Sunggyu his confused stare, silently asking for answers that Sunggyu doesn’t have either.

Sunggyu notices the change in Myungsoo’s demeanor and feels guilty.  “Um, alright, if you want to. I’ll let Sungyeol know when he’s done. I’m…sorry if I asked something I shouldn’t have, you don’t need to tell me anything you don’t want to…” he finishes lamely, nervously scratching the back of his neck. 

Myungsoo’s tough persona melts slightly.  “No, it’s not your fault for being curious.  It’s our fault for feeding your curiosity, let’s go Woohyun Hyung,”

Woohyun sits in silence for a moment.  Sunggyu makes a move to sit up, but Woohyun pushes him back down.  He looks up at Myungsoo with a defiant look but it melts into agreement. Sunggyu sits up and it  vaguely seems as though Woohyun reaches out to take his hand, but that’s most likely his brain just being delusional.  Woohyun sighs and stands up as well, bidding Sunggyu and Dongwoo goodbye.  “Tell Sungyeol we’re sorry we had to leave early,”

And with that, they leave. 

“Damn Gyu Hyung what did you do?”  Dongwoo asks, astonished.

Sunggyu blinks, “I really don’t know.”

* * *

 

Sunggyu doesn’t learn how triggering what he asked that day was for a while.  But when he does, it’s because he’s fuming and is prepared to punch Woohyun in the face.  It’s the day they learn that Woohyun used to be crazy about skinship – something he clearly isn’t too fond of anymore. 

“Really?”  Dongwoo giggles when Myungsoo tells him, much to Woohyun’s annoyance.  “No way, he seems like such a sourpuss!”

Myungsoo laughs, “No he was so greasy!  He used to walk around giving people back-hugs and he had so many greasy lines he pulled on girls and god he was so stupid.”   Woohyun shoves a pillow on his face and pretends he can’t hear them, but Sunggyu knows they’re laughing loud enough to get through to him.

“Oh, well then he won’t mind a hug then?”  Dongwoo giggles like a child and slithers up to Woohyun.  “Come on you big bad prince, give me a hug!” Everyone is rolling a fit of laughter and Woohyun grumbles and gives Dongwoo the death stare.

“Jang Dongwoo, don’t you go there. I don’t do that crap anymore,”  he hisses, but no one takes him seriously. 

“Aw, come on!  You used to be a big greasy tree!”  Dongwoo opens his arms and wiggles his fingers as if he’s waiting.

“No!” Woohyun screams.  “I will not give you a fucking hug!” 

The room goes silent.

Dongwoo shrivels away and Woohyun automatically feels guilty.  “I…I-I’m sorry,”  Woohyun knows Dongwoo is sensitive, they all know that.  But he never thought it’d be so easy to make him _cry._ He was just angry…they _were_ teasing him after all. 

He feels even _more_ guilty when Sunggyu stands.   He stomps over to Woohyun and roughly grabs him by the collar and drags him away from a sniffling Dongwoo.   Before they’re even entirely into the room, Woohyun tries to bullshit some excuse to make up for his behavior.  But he couldn’t come up with anything – that was a jerk move on his part.

“I didn’t mean to,” he says lamely. 

“That doesn’t change the fact that you did,” Sunggyu spits.  “It doesn’t take a lot to make Dongwoo cry, but if you don’t apologize to him you’ll go through hell from me Nam Woohyun, I promise you that.”  He snarls. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbles. 

“Not to me you idiot!”  Sunggyu rages, “To Dongwoo!”

“I know, I will…but I think…”  Woohyun swallows nervously and Sunggyu feels his anger melting away.  He looks like a puppy dog, shuffling his feet nervously, unsure of how to continue, it’s so un-Woohyun.  At least, un-Woohyun based on what _he_ ’s seen.   Sunggyu wants to hug him – but his friendship with Dongwoo is bigger and he mentally kicks himself.  “Can I tell you something?  Next to Myungsoo…you’re the one I trust the most here.”

The sentiment makes Sunggyu feel warm and fuzzy inside, but it also makes him nervous. He never wanted to play Dr. Phil; he just wanted to make Woohyun apologize.  “Err, you can…I don’t know if I can help you with whatever problem you’ve got though, I don’t give good advice.  And you need to apologize still.”

“I don’t need advice,” Woohyun whispers, “Just a pair of ears.”

If it was anyone else, Sunggyu would have snapped.  He would have been red-faced and pissed off.  Angered that anyone _dares_ to make Dongwoo cry, and ask him for a “pair of ears”?  He would have punched him until his nose bled. 

But because Woohyun was an alien from a different planet, he sat down and he listened.  It was only because he was an alien that could eat him if he wanted to, really.  It had absolutely nothing to do with the warm fuzzy feeling in his heart because Woohyun trusted _him._

“I was told once that being my greasy, touchy self was too much,” his voice came out quiet and frail.

_“But Sungjong-ah, I’m only like this because I love you,” the prince wrapped his arms around his human friend’s neck and nuzzled his nose against the exposed skin.  “You smell good,”_

_“G-get off you greasy tree!”  He tried to push him off with smack, but he gently covered the smaller boy’s heart with his hand and the rapid thumping gave him away.  He liked this.  The prince lifted the boy by his small waist and spun him in circles while laughing.  Sungjong struggled at first, but eventually gave in; he was used to it anyway._

_“You know you love it,” The prince giggled, placing a chaste kiss on the lips of his lover._

_“Yah!”  Sungjong whacked him and tried to push away the smile tugging at his lips.  “Your mom, or dad…or that stupid jerk is gonna walk in on us!” his cheeks reddened slightly.  “It’s embarrassing; I’m a man you know!  What kind of man gets lifted up and spun around like a little girl?”_

_“Myungsoo’s a nice guy if you give him a chance,” Woohyun chided pulling Sungjong back into his loving embrace.  “Yes, you’re them manliest man there is,” he giggled.  “The manliest man with a sweet spot right – here!”  He nibbled at the base of Sungjong’s neck and relished the little squeak that left his lips._

_“Y-Yah!”  Sungjong tried to protest more, but his feeble protests morphed into giggles.  “S-Stop it that tickles!”  Woohyun had a firm grip on his waist and held a squirming, giggling Sungjong in place.  “I’m gonna punch you, s-stop!”  He started choking on his own laughter until Woohyun let go with a greasy grin on his lips, pleased at the sight of a breathless Sungjong.  “Jerk face.”_

_Woohyun kissed the tip of his nose, “The jerk face you love,” he nuzzled into Sungjong’s neck again.  “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”_

_It had been ten years since the king of Woollim found a small human stowaway aboard his ship.  Woohyun remembered the day as well as any.  It was the first time he had ever seen Sungjong cry – courtesy of Myungsoo, of course.  The eight-year-old menace asked if the king had brought back Sungjong as a pet, and the small little six-year-old boy burst into tears._

_Myungsoo had been scolded harshly for that incident, and it took Sungjong a long time to mutually agree to the love-hate relationship the two of them shared.  The king had insisted Sungjong stay in the castle after learning the younger had no home to return to.  He made a wonderful friend to Woohyun._

_They became inseparable - two peas in a pod.  There was no Nam Woohyun without a Lee Sungjong._

_Sungjong was strange to Woohyun with his odd mannerisms.  “Why do you rub your eyes, Sungjong?”_

_“Because I’m sleepy,”_

_“Why don’t you sleep then?”_

_“I wanna stay up with Woohyun Hyung!”_

_“Why do you like it when I play with your hair Sungjong-ah?”_

_“It feels nice! But only when Woohyun Hyung does it!”_

_Woohyun never thought that there could be a Lee Sungjong without a Nam Woohyun._

_And then, it happened._

_Woohyun didn’t know how humans had found their planet.  He didn’t know how it was possible – they were very high tech when it came to security.  But when Sungjong’s smile stretched from ear to ear seeing people of his own kind, he had begged his father to let it slide._

_They could only let it slide for so much time though.  When the humans started defiling their land in the name of so-called “science” the king had no choice but to banish the settlers from their home.   Unsure of their true power – the humans obliged, but not after revealing a disgusting truth._

_It hit him hard when it happened, it struck right in his chest and he felt like he couldn’t breathe for months.  “Sungjong…what are you doing?”_

_His human, his Sungjong…why was he boarding the ship? Sungjong didn’t turn around; he marched on board with his hands balled into fists.   “Sungjong!”_

_The king stopped his son.  “The humans had an inside source,” his tone was bitter, but it was also hurt.  Living over ten years in the castle….Sungjong was like a son to them.  His little body had even adapted to aging the same way as them, he had become a part of the family.   “He did it for money…for the promise of a leisure life upon his return to Earth.  He never truly belonged here.”_

_Woohyun pushed his father from his shoulder and marched towards the ship with a mixture of sadness and hurt clouding his pupils.  “Sungjong they’re ly-“_

_“I’m sorry,” he could hear the hurt in his voice.  His voice made Woohyun want to run up and pull him into his arms.  “I was poor.  I didn’t have anywhere to go, no one to go to, and they…the scientists I mean, they promised so much.  So much I never thought a seven year old beggar could ever have.  I couldn’t pass up that chance.”_

_Woohyun felt the weight of the world pounding on his chest.  He felt like his lungs were tied in a huge knot together and it was hard to breathe.  “B-But now…you said you loved me.”  Woohyun was not angry.  He was hurt, devastated, and crushed, but Woohyun was not angry.  “You meant those words Sungjong, I know you did.”_

_Sungjong scoffed.  “How could anyone love such a greasy idiot?”_

_Without turning back once, he stormed into the ship and the hatch closed after him.  Nam Woohyun never heard from Lee Sungjong again.  And his words stuck in his head like a broken record player, they haunted his dreams, his nightmares, his thoughts._

_How could anyone love such a greasy idiot?_

“So I don’t really like skinship,” Woohyun stares at the shimmering city lights flickering outside the balcony of his apartment.   “I try not to use it as much anymore because when…if I find him again –“

“Wait a second…you’re _looking_ for him?”  Sunggyu’s mouth drops open in disbelief.  “Why would you go looking for a jerk like that?”  He demands.  

Woohyun smiles sadly, “Myungsoo and my mother said the same thing.”  He whispers, and Sunggyu hears a trace of sadness in his voice.   “He loved me though, he still loves me.  Wherever he is, he still loves me.  I love him too.  I will find him because I love him.” 

Sunggyu stands up to argue.  He’s hell bent on knocking some sense into Woohyun’s thick skull.  He’s more than ready to teach him a thing or two about relationships (even though he’s never _been_ in one) He’s ready to dive head first into nagging Sunggyu mode as if Woohyun was Sungyeol. 

But he can’t. 

Not when he sees the look of pure determination in his face. 

His heart plummets.  “Let’s go back so you can apologize to Dongwoo,” he says softly.  “I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier,”

Woohyun smiles, “You didn’t know,”

Sunggyu wishes he still didn’t.  It hurts like hell knowing someone you love has someone else.  It hurts like hell knowing the one you love is chasing after someone that doesn’t deserve them. 

* * *

 

Sand fills the spaces between his toes as he simultaneously wiggles them and stretches out his arms in pure bliss.  “This is absolutely amazing!”  Sunggyu screams at the top of his longs and relishes the sound of his own voice bouncing off the edges of…of whatever Woohyun has created.  He’s too happy to care what this is.  He’s too happy to care _how_ this is.

Sunggyu’s accepted that with Woohyun, what is – _just is_. 

“Holy shit Hyung how?”  Sungyeol’s voice is shocked, but it’s more a mix of hysteria and pure joy.   

Myungsoo reminds them about the list – about how this is a figment of Woohyun’s mind and he just decided to let them in on the ride, but Sungyeol and Sunggyu are to astonished to pay him any attention.

Sungyeol takes off in a sprint, spraying sand with his heels.   His booming laughter bounces across the boundaries of this _place_ when Myungsoo is hot on his trail and soon the stoic-faced alien is crying tears of joy alongside him. 

It’s funny how both Myungsoo and Woohyun have changed the more time they spend with them.

The two of them leap into the waves crashing against the shoreline.  Their shrieks of joy are mingled together and it’s hard to distinguish them anymore.  But then again, it’s hard to see Myungsoo without Sungyeol and vice versa these days – Sunggyu thinks that’s cute. 

With a giddy smile, Sunggyu spins (and almost falls into the sand) and sees Woohyun leaning against a well-designed rock structure with his arms leisurely crossed over his chest.    He pauses and feels a blush creeping on his cheek.   He knew Woohyun was going to be shirtless (they all were except for him.  He didn’t need his flabby stomach sticking out at the abs-fest.)   It wasn’t the clearly defined muscles that got to him though - ok, they played a part – it was the warm smile painting his lips. 

His eyes were soft and watching him in the most endearing way.  Sunggyu wanted to cover his face and sink away in the sand.  It was so _loving_ , so _warm_ , and the fact that it was directed at him made the butterflies in his stomach flutter.  “Are you coming?” 

It was easy to forget Woohyun had a love he was looking for with those warm looks.

He chuckles and Sunggyu tries not to think about how deep it sounds and kicks off the rocks and heads towards him.   “Let’s go,” 

Sunggyu decides he’s not going to think straight, so he storms forward and grabs Woohyun’s hand.  “Stop being such a slowpoke!”  With Woohyun in check, he starts sprinting for the water like Sungyeol, laughter bouncing off his lips. 

Sunggyu let’s go of Woohyun’s hand and slams right into Sungyeol with full force.  He tackles his lanky friend into the water and laughs in victory at the sight of his best friend’s shocked, water-logged face gurgling beneath the surface.   His feet begin to sink into the wet sand so he has no time to move when Myungsoo decides to take revenge.   He barely has enough time to hold his nose and pinch his eyes shut before Myungsoo’s arms push against his chest and bits of wet sand cling to his caramel hair after he makes contact with the ocean floor.

“Gotcha Gyu Hyung!” 

Sunggyu playfully snarls.  He knows Myungsoo’s too strong for him to push.  But while he’s still seated on the ground,  he quickly yanks on both of Myungsoo’s feet and laughs at the cry of anguish he gives out when he comes toppling (knocking over Sungyeol with him).   With a triumphant smirk, Sunggyu crosses his arms over his chest when Myungsoo emerges to the surface, spluttering and coughing out seawater.  “Kim Myungsoo, have you not learned?  You _never_ mess with Kim Sunggyu!”

“Hyung, there’s water in my nose!”  He whines and starts sniffing like a puppy. “You suck!”

Sunggyu was too caught up in defeating the duo that he forgot a third possible threat.    Of course, said threat made his presence known with arms wrapped around his waist.  “Does he?  Would you like me to get revenge on our hamster Hyung, Myungsoo?”  Sunggyu _would_ be thinking about the well-sculpted chest pressed against his back, how close it was because of his soaking t-shirt sticking to his back, the warmth it gave off pressed against his wet and freezing body.     But who thinks about those things when they’re about to meet a salty, watery demise?

“Yah, Nam Woohyun!”  He snaps, trying to wriggle free.  “If you even think about it, you’ll regret it, you hear me?”   Neither of them noticed Sungyeol wiggling his butt across the floor closer to them.

An evil grin adorns his face, “One…”

“Nam Woohyun I _swear_ you will never regret something so much in your life!”  Sunggyu snarls. Sungyeol was only a foot or two away now, but they still didn’t notice. 

“Two…”  Woohyun laughs heartily.

“Do you _really_ want to be on the same level as Myungsoo - as Kim Myungsoo, the world’s biggest idiot? Is that you what you want Woohyun?”  Sunggyu coughs violently when Myungsoo sends a large splash in their direction with a scoff.  

“Right, right, Myungsoo’s right – do you _really_ wanna be on the same level as Sungyeol?!” 

“I’ll show you the same level as Sungyeol you stupid old grandpa!”  With that, Sungyeol grabbed Woohyun’s feet, and yanked them so Woohyun (and the boy in his grasp) fell backwards – facing the same fate as Myungsoo.

Sunggyu snarled, even underwater he could hear the two of them shrieking with laughter.  “Yah! Lee Sungyeol, Kim Myungsoo, you don’t know what you’ve gotten into!”  He shakes his soaking mop of caramel hair.  “War has begun, prepare yourselves!”

And so, a large portion of the time they spent in the world Woohyun created was what Sungyeol declared “War at Sea.”    It started out in teams, Woohyun and Sunggyu against Sungyeol and Myungsoo.  But after Sungyeol couldn’t resist attacking Myungsoo so in the open, and Woohyun sneakily dunked Sunggyu as well, it became a survival of the fittest scenario.

The four of them – dripping entirely in a mixture of water and sweat crawled onto the dry sand.   With a flick of his wrist, Woohyun changed sunlight into a sky filled with stars.   Even though they were quite a bit away, Sunggyu could hear Myungsoo attempting to educate Sungyeol on the story each little star had.   It was cute - he kept talking even though Sungyeol sure as hell wasn’t listening.   “Thanks.”

“Hm?”  Sunggyu glanced at Woohyun, but he was looking up at the stars with his signature stoic expression.  Just when he thought he’d got around that stupid façade. “For what?  And didn’t we decide you’d _stop_ being so grumpy all the time?”  He punched him lightly, “Get rid of the frown idiot.”

Woohyun laughed, “For that day I told you about Jong, for listening to my story, for not calling me a pathetic loser because I still…well yea,” 

Sunggyu swallowed hard.  _Oh._

He was hoping this wouldn’t come up a lot.

“That’s what friends are for, right?”

Woohyun smiled up at the sky and Sunggyu hated the fact that it was so different than the one he wore when looking at Sunggyu.  It was filled with so much love, so much raw emotion and it was all directed at some bitch that had left him.     Woohyun’s love for him was nothing like that – it was warm and friendly – not fiery.  “Do you think I’m being stupid?”

Sunggyu almost said no.  He almost said no to get rid of the sad glint and replace it with a happy twinkle.  But he wasn’t going to lie.  “I do - Myungsoo, your mom, everybody’s right.  That boy’s a bitch.  He doesn’t deserve you if he left you like that.”

Sunggyu’s heart pounded against his chest when they were both enveloped by silence.  He could feel tightness bubbling in his throat but forced his eyes wide open and started at the shining stars.  He was _not_ going to cry just because he was afraid Woohyun hated him.  It was hard not to when Woohyun’s voice came out small and frail.  Just like it had that day, “Everybody deserves a second chance,”

Sunggyu wanted to wrap his arms around him and hug him tight and let Woohyun cry against his chest.  He wanted to tell Woohyun to let all his tears out and it was going to be okay, that he was here, that he didn’t need him, that _he_ didn’t deserve a second chance.   But he was so fearful of losing the small ground they’d gained on the road of friendship with Woohyun he swallowed his urges and nodded.  “Yea, I guess so.”

Woohyun smiled.  But it stabbed Sunggyu right in the heart.  “Thanks Gyu,”

Woohyun got up and held his hand out, “We should get going,” Sunggyu lazily took his hand and let Woohyun pull him to his feet.   The smile on his face was soft and warm, and it made his stomach drop.  The guilt was eating him. 

_Yeah, I guess so._

_But I don’t think he deserves it anyway._

* * *

 

 “Soo?”  Sunggyu rubs his tired eyes.  His hair is sticking up and he’s wearing nothing but boxers and a loose t-shirt.  But it’s Myungsoo so he doesn’t care.  “It’s Saturday you dork, what do you want?”

“To talk.”

The serious tone in his voice causes Sunggyu to wake up a little.   Myungsoo has reverted back to the stoic boy he met at the very beginning with heartless, soulless eyes.  Sunggyu’s parents have both gone out on an early morning grocery shopping run and he suddenly wishes he’d gone with them.  “About?”

“You told him to give him another chance,” Myungsoo’s voice doesn’t come out rough or harsh.  It’s sharp and hits a nerve – but only because Sunggyu wants it to hit a nerve.  Myungsoo is not trying to be accusatory in any way.

“I did.”  Sunggyu plops down on his couch and gestures for Myungsoo to sit down too.  He doesn’t.  Sunggyu didn’t really expect him too.

“Why?”

Sunggyu blinks away the tears and swallows the lump.  He’s grateful Myungsoo didn’t sit because he’d realize he’s almost going to cry.  “I just want him to be happy.  He makes him happy.” 

Myungsoo sits next to Sunggyu and turns him so they’re facing each other.  “He’s not good for him.”  He says softly.  Myungsoo reaches over to the coffee table and grabs a tissue.  He starts dabbing at Sunggyu’s eyes when tears start rolling down his cheeks.  “Don’t you want to be happy? You like him.”

Sunggyu chuckles a little.  “Am I so obvious?”

“That’s not answering my question.”

“What good will it do for anyone if I keep around someone that doesn’t want to be here?”  Sunggyu snaps.  “He wants _him_ Myungsoo, not me.  Do you know how much he must love him?  He cheated him – he went off and conned him for money.  For freaking _money._ Do you have any idea how much he must want him if he’s willing to take him back after that?”  He snarls.   His eyes are brimming with unshed tears; some of them are slipping out. Myungsoo doesn’t wipe them away anymore though.  “He doesn’t want me, Myungsoo.  He wants _him._ ”

Myungsoo takes his hand, and Sunggyu finally has enough courage to look into his eyes.  They aren’t stoic like when he entered, they’re warm.   Warm like Woohyun’s are when he looks at Sunggyu.  “But _you_ want Woohyun.” 

Sunggyu takes in the warmth in Myungsoo’s eyes.  It’s not the same as when he looks at Sungyeol.  It’s not the same as when Woohyun thinks about that boy. 

_“But he doesn’t want me.”_

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow this took a while. i just started college this year so things got kind hectic, sorry it took over half a year for this. it should not have taken so much time! sorry to anyone who's still hanging around after six months

Sunggyu rubs his eyes and blinks away the sleep as best he can.  He ditched Sungyeol in favor of a morning coffee run, a new shop opened up around the corner and he figured he wanted to try it without Sungyeol screaming in his ears.   It was a test to be sure it was the coffee waking him up.

He’s greeted with tinkling bells and a chirpy boy, “Hello, welcome to Lemon Candy Café!”  Sunggyu forces a half smile on his face in greeting.  It’s way too early to be that happy.   Sunggyu scans the menu, but seeing as he keeps staring at the sign for five minutes without truly comprehending anything, he sighs.

“Do you have any recommendations?”  He asks finally, his eyes drop to the boy’s name tag and Sunggyu feels his heart freeze.

_Lee Sungjong_

Sunggyu hears Sungjong’s chipper voice in the back of his mind.  But in the front is his heart pulsing in his brain.   He tries to knock some sense into his brain, the boy was _young_.  Extremely young, actually.  Sunggyu would be surprised if he’s even the same age as him.  Woohyun said that Sungjong had been with them since they were young.  So _that_ Sungjong had to be over hundreds of years old. 

“…Sunggyu-shi?”  Sunggyu snaps to attention and this Sungjong boy laughs.  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you?” 

Sunggyu stares at him with surprise still evident in his eyes, “How’d you know my name?” he blurts out, Sungjong pointedly looks at the golden plate stapled to his chest and Sunggyu feels like shriveling up and dying.  

Seeing his cheeks redden Sungjong laughs, “High school student, eh?  I had my fair share of those days.”  He chuckles.  “If you trust my judgment I can whip you something up that’ll have you wide awake in no time,”

Sunggyu pushes his proposal aside, “Uh yea sure, so are you a high school student too?”  He’s only asking out of curiosity, just making small talk.  Sunggyu was sure it wasn’t him, it couldn’t be, but he also has to _be_ sure.  There was only one way to do that, but Sunggyu is _not_ planning on bringing Woohyun anywhere near this kid should his suspicions be confirmed.

“Oh no, that was ages ago,” Sungjong laughs pouring a suspicious looking yellow-brown liquid into a mug and swirling in a small amount of sugar. 

His answer only made Sunggyu more skeptical, with a raised eyebrow, he takes the cup Sungjong pushes in his direction, “Just how old are you then?” 

Sungjong smiles wistfully, “Older than you think.” 

Sunggyu takes a careful sip of his drink. It takes him about five seconds of swishing it around in his mouth before he spits it out and gives Sungjong his best death glare, “What _is_ this?” 

Sungjong smiles playfully and reached over the counter to ruffle his hair.  Sunggyu steps back and hisses at him. Sungjong’s expression is smug, “Woke you up, didn’t it?  Didn’t say it would taste good.” 

Sunggyu narrows his eyes.  Pushing the cup of death-liquid back towards the counter, he turns to leave when Sungjong clears his throat.   He rubs his fingers together and Sunggyu curses….he _did_ tell him to make whatever after all.  “I really dislike you.”  He snaps, digging a bunch of crumpled bills out of his wallet. 

“Darn, and I was hoping I’d be seeing you around more often,” Sungjong clicks his tongue mockingly as Sunggyu huffs and storms out, a bitter taste of coffee mixed with lemon stinging on his tongue. 

Unfortunately, Sungjong _does_ end up seeing him around more often.  Much more often than Sunggyu would like.  He can’t get the scrawny boy out of his head.   Although, he settles for ordering the hot chocolate (extra sugar) rather than that shitty espresso lemonade Sungjong was most proud of. 

“Back again, Gyu?”  Sungjong finishes ringing up a customer before meeting eyes with someone who quickly became one of his regulars. 

“Don’t call me that,” Sunggyu spits with a huff.  “You look like your seven, I don’t think you’re my Hyung at all,” he snips. 

Sungjong rolls his eyes, but silently tosses him a newspaper while starting on his hot chocolate.  “I didn’t get very far today, it was kinda busy.” 

Sunggyu snorts, “Busy? You mean you didn’t scare everyone off today?”  Sungjong shoots him a glare and Sunggyu feels accomplished.   He hasn’t been coming here a lot just yet, but breaking the ice with Sungjong was easy.  Much easier than it should have been.  Sungjong greatly reminds him of Sungyeol, and although one Sungyeol is more than enough in his life, Sunggyu thinks that once he’s completely sure that this Sungjong is not _that_ Sungjong, they could all be great friends. 

Sungjong gets his revenge by hitting Sunggyu with a marker square in the forehead.  Sungjong sticks out his tongue in response, but uncaps the marker with his teeth and gets started on the daily Sudoku puzzle. 

It’s become a habit really.  Of course, Sunggyu started out returning because of his so-called investigation, but the more and more he came it sort of fell into his routine.  Sometimes Woohyun asks where he goes all the time after school, but Sunggyu manages to make up some white lie about helping his mother out.  He doesn’t Woohyun to know just yet. 

“You got everything wrong,” Sunggyu smiles, crossing out the numbers Sungjong had already inked in.  It brings him joy to see embarrassed frown on his face.  “And _you’re_ my Hyung?”  He clicks his tongue. 

“Shut up you brat,” Sungjong snips, whipping a hand-towel in his direction.  Sunggyu dodges while humming to Nell’s new song and filling in more numbers.  

After the Sudoku puzzle, Sunggyu moves to his homework and slowly starts to lose track of time, before he knows it, it’s pretty late and both he and Sungjong are yawning.   “How come you’re the only one that ever works here?”  Sunggyu asks that night, stifling a yawn.

Sungjong gestures him outside as he locks up the store, “Can’t afford any workers, I own this place.”  Sungjong rubs his eyes again.

“Really?”  Sunggyu is shocked, Sungjong looks far too young to own a coffee shop by himself.   Sungjong laughs in response, and rubs his eyes again.  Sunggyu chooses his words carefully, and monitors Sungjong’s reaction carefully as well, “You know, you rub your eyes a lot, Hyung.”

Sungjong smiles, but Sunggyu sees it doesn’t reach as high up to his eyes as his usual smile.  “Yea?  I’m just tired a lot I guess,” he stretches his arms out.  “See you tomorrow?” 

Sunggyu swallows the uncomfortable lump forming in his throat, “Yea, see you tomorrow.” 

Sunggyu does see him tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after for the next week.  Sunggyu has known Sungjong for two weeks now, and he decides that he really does like Sungjong.  He likes him a lot. 

The next time Sunggyu walks into the coffee shop, he’s surprised to find the newspaper from the morning still loosely tucked underneath the door knob.   Curiously, he picks it up and tucks it under his arm before pushing the door open where he finds the reason. 

A frantic Sungjong darts his eyes to the door, “Welcome to Lemon Candy Ca- oh hey Gyu, be with you in a minute?”  He quickly turns back to an older looking woman and scribbles down her order.  Sunggyu notices that the usually empty place is stock full and a long line is twisting around the tables. 

Sunggyu thinks maybe he can do something nice for a change.  “Need some help?”  He asks, slipping behind the counter.   Sungjong gives him a worried glance and he rolls his eyes.  “For free, and I’ve handled a cash register before.  I take the orders, you make the coffee.” 

Sungjong tosses him a grateful smile and lets out a breath.  He digs out an apron from underneath the counter and tosses it over Sunggyu’s shoulders and ties it in the back.  “Thanks a ton, Sunggyu, really.” 

Sunggyu just watches Sungjong quickly begin on the piled orders in the back with a smile.  “Hello, welcome to Lemon Candy Café, how may I help you?”  

Only about half an hour into the rush, Sunggyu feels like his fingers have gone numb from pushing so many buttons.  He finds it a feat worth a gold medal when he still manages to push the smile on his lips and spit out, “Welcome to Lemon Candy Café, how may I help you?” on repeat without faltering.

That is, until that little bitch comes into play. 

Sunggyu starts out fine, spits out the greeting, and pulls out the biggest smile he can muster after 45 minutes of exhausting work (which, really, is nothing compared to what Sungjong does daily, but Sunggyu chooses not to think about that).   She turns her nose up at him and Sunggyu holds his breath to keep from inhaling the fume of vanilla radiating off her body (it’s almost as if he can see the fumes in the air).  “Where is the cute boy?”

Sunggyu chooses to ignore the underlying message in that.  She’s the last customer and once she’s done he can demand Sungjong’s ultimate servitude for how much Sunggyu’s helped him.  “He’s in the back making coffee, I’m helping him out today, what would you like to order?”  He stays calm and professional (he really deserves a medal, he thinks, for not ripping out this girl’s stupidly curly hair right then and there). 

“I’m not ordering if he’s not here,” she says in a snippy tone.  She puts her hands on her hips and glares at Sunggyu, “You’ll only mess it up.” 

Sunggyu doesn’t bother with the professionalism anymore, “If you only come to this coffee shop hoping your ‘cute Oppa’ will actually look at you, then you’re at the wrong place,” the girl snarls and Sunggyu thinks he’s on a streak, so he keeps going.  “But if you go online there’s tons of websites where you can buy a boyfriend,”

The girl stamps her foot and loudly booms, “I’d like to talk to your manager!” 

Sunggyu opens his mouth to retaliate when Sungjong pops his head out from the corner, “Is there a problem?”  Sunggyu turns to let him handle the situation but feels bad instantly when he sees the redness in Sungjong’s eyes.  He feels bad about causing a commotion.   Especially when the amount of tiredness increases upon seeing the trouble he has to deal with.  “Oh, Sunhee, you’re back.”

She smiles triumphantly, “Oppa, if you needed part-time help, you could have called me!” she whines, “I wouldn’t have minded,” she looks Sunggyu up and down and he clenches his fists to keep himself from giving a snarky reply. 

Sungjong notices her gaze and frowns. He immediately throws a protective arm around Sunggyu.  “Actually this guy here is one of my closest friends, he offered without me asking,” Sunggyu smiles smugly when the look on the girl’s face falls.  “So, another Lemonade Espresso, as usual?”

The girl nods with a light frown and Sunggyu hands her receipt over with a smug smile.  After she takes her order and storms out of the café, Sungjong chooses to reveal, “I spit in her drink every time.  I wonder how long it’ll take her to catch on.”  

Sunggyu laughs so hard he snorts.  “Can’t blame you.”  He slips back to the other side of counter and finally opens his newspaper and reaches over into Sungjong’s apron pocket to grab a marker.  Sungjong takes a seat beside him, but just drops his head on the table and closes his eyes.  “I’ve never seen this place so busy, what happened?”

“Don’t know, I think someone famous came here like yesterday and tweeted about it, the place has been booming ever since,”  Sungjong lets out a groan, “I don’t know if I should be thankful or not.” 

Sunggyu rolls his eyes but starts running his fingers through Sungjong’s hair out of sheer boredom.  The Sudoku puzzle is extra hard today and he’s too tired to concentrate on it anymore.  Sungjong hums, “That feels good,” 

Sunggyu fidgets a little, “You…you like this?  When I…play with your hair?”

Sungjong has a wistful smile again, “Yea, an old friend of mine used to do this a lot,” 

Sunggyu goes quiet and starts to think a little bit.  He decides to stop thinking and takes a deep breath.  “Do you…happen to….know a Woohyun?” 

Sungjong tilts his head up, “Woohyun?  Nope, never heard of one,” 

Sunggyu’s heart relaxes greatly for a moment.   Only for a moment though.  _But the prince’s name isn’t really Woohyun_.  “Er….Hyung how old are you?”  

Sungjong sighs, “Why this game again?  I already told you, older than you think,” 

“No but I kinda need to know,” Sunggyu stops playing with Sungjong’s hair and his voice gets a little shaky.  “Are you…maybe over hundreds of years old?” 

Sungjong’s head shoots up.  “Excuse me?” 

Sunggyu sees fear in Sungjong’s eyes and he regrets it immediately, “You…were you ever….did you ever go to a different planet and meet a prince and just…live there for a while…and then you-“

“Get the fuck out of my shop right now.”

Sunggyu whimpers when Sungjong roughly grabs his arm and starts dragging him towards the door.  “No, no wait!” he tries to reason but Sungjong is seething. 

“Tell your fucking boss I don’t want anything to do with this shit anymore, I had enough of that the first time around.  I’m not doing that ever again you can tell him-“

“I don’t have a boss!” Sunggyu cries, managing to push Sungjong off. 

He narrows his eyes and grits his teeth, “You expect me to believe you?”

“Woohyun told me.”  Sungjong stares at him as if he’s stupid.  “I mean the prince!”  Sunggyu quickly corrects himself.  “I don’t know his real name….or Myungsoo’s…um that’s his friend.  But they’ve come here for a little while.   And Woohyun’s, um I mean the Prince, is looking for you,” he finishes lamely.

Sunggyu doesn’t know just how he’s going to get Sungjong to believe him so relief shrouds over him when Sungjong releases his arm.   “One hundred and seven,” He sees pain flicker in Sungjong’s eyes and Sunggyu feels guilty.  “I’m one hundred and seven years old,”

“Oh.”  Sunggyu feels terrible that all he can manage is a single syllable.  But Sungjong gestures for him to sit down.  “I suppose you’ve heard his side of the story,”   Sunggyu nods.  He also decides to tell Sungjong exactly what he’s heard.  

He recounts every detail to the best of his memory, and spills out everything Woohyun told him, all the emotion hidden in his words.  He doesn’t want to lose Woohyun to Sungjong.  But he doesn’t want Sungjong upset anymore, either.  

“I want to hear your side of the story too, Hyung.”

Sungjong looks at him with hollow eyes, and obliges.  He tells him that when he was seven years old he was sold by his parents to a merchant that was going to ship him overseas.  Sungjong didn’t like the idea so he ran off before they got the chance.  He joined a rag-tag group of robbers and lived for about six months off of scraps he found in garbage cans and any wallet money he managed to snatch.  It was then that he was confronted by scientists. 

Sunggyu learns that, in South Korea, the ability to travel to outer space was realized decades before it was other parts of the world.  He learns it was one of the country’s greatest kept secrets and to this day remains as such.  Sungjong tells him of all the money he was promised, of all the things he would be given.  He was a seven year old boy that lived most of his life with food on his table and a bed to sleep on.  Being so suddenly thrown into the life he had to endure, Sunggyu doesn’t blame him for agreeing.

He also learns how Sungjong gradually fell in love with Woohyun.  How their relationship grew steadily, he listened to the sweet moments that were clear in Sungjong’s mind but Woohyun had never told him.  And when Sungjong gets to the part where his story was revealed, he sees the pain and the regret in his eyes.  He sees the guiltiness. 

Sunggyu can only pat his back when Sungjong begins to cry, “I ruined him.  I absolutely ruined him.”  He sobs into Sunggyu’s shirt and Sunggyu holds him tight against his chest.  “He was amazing to me, but I ruined him.” 

Sunggyu isn’t good with comforting people.  He can’t even make Dongwoo stop crying.  He awkwardly tries to hush Sungjong’s harsh sobs.  “You didn’t mean it…it wasn’t your fault.” 

“Promise me something?”  Sungjong pulls away and with red, teary eyes. He looks into Sunggyu’s soul.  “Please promise me something, Sunggyu?” 

Sunggyu isn’t sure of anything Sungjong would want from him.  Especially not now that he knows everything.  He’s afraid, but he also thinks Sungjong deserves this.  “What is it?”

 _“Fix him._ ” 

* * *

“Thanks for finally joining us,” Sungyeol pokes Sunggyu in his chest one day when he’s sprawled across his couch with a bowl of popcorn in hand and watching the newest episode of that new drama about that one angel girl and her earth adventures.  Sunggyu thinks it kinda resembles his life right now.  Except instead of an angel he’s dealing with an alien that could potentially eat him.  And oh yea, he’s also in love with him. 

Sunggyu shoves him off, “What does that mean?”  He rolls his eyes. 

“You’ve been MIA for quite a while,” Myungsoo points out and Woohyun has a slight frown on his face.  “Where do you go anyway?” He notices Sunggyu shift uncomfortably.  

Sunggyu decides it’s better not to lie, “Well, I made a new friend.”  He clears his throat, “I’ve been hanging out with him lately,” he keeps the details a secret for now.   But this should be enough to get them off his back. 

Both Myungsoo and Sungyeol exchange looks before erupting into laughter.  Sunggyu narrows his eyes, “What’s so funny?”  He demands. 

“You made a friend?”  Sungyeol wipes tears from the corners of his eyes.  “Holy shit who is this kid?  I need to congratulate him.  He got the world’s most anti-social loser on the planet to talk,” Sunggyu responds with a smack on his forehead.  Even through the pain, Sungyeol lets a few more giggles escape. 

“Who is this friend?”  Myungsoo asks and Sunggyu feels heavy in his chest. 

“Just someone I met on the street, you guys don’t know him.  He doesn’t go to our school,” Myungsoo senses his discomfort and lets it go. 

After Sungyeol continues to poke him for a while, Sunggyu sends his ass to the ground with a kick and pats the space next to him while gesturing to Woohyun.  Woohyun doesn’t even bother to help Sungyeol up, in fact he steps on him on the way.

“Assholes,” he grumbles slithering up beside Myungsoo. 

Without thinking Sunggyu fixes his position so he can snugly fit his head at the base of Woohyun’s shoulder.  Deep down he knows Woohyun is just trying to be friendly, but the arm that snakes around his waist and pulls him closer makes his heart hum in happiness.  “I missed you,” he mumbles. 

Sunggyu bites his lip to keep the smile from blooming.  “Really? Miss me or miss me being the only sane one here?”  Woohyun laughs, thwacking him on the forehead.  “I’ll take that as a yes.” Sunggyu giggles.

“Really though, I missed you a lot.”  Sunggyu feels like his heart’s going to explode.  But then he thinks of Sungjong and how much he means to Woohyun and his happiness falls a little bit.  He’s not the one Woohyun misses the most. 

Sunggyu hates that those thoughts are swarming in his head.  He feels guilty.  Sungjong’s a good person.  Woohyun’s a good person.  He can’t bring himself to dislike Sungjong.  But he can’t bring himself to give up Woohyun.  “I might be the one missing you soon,” he whispers.  He doesn’t think Woohyun caught it, he’s too absorbed with the drama. 

Sunggyu’s a little happy about that.  But he’s also a little guilty.  Woohyun trusts him, he trusts him a lot.  He can hear it in his voice, he told him to his face.  He’s breaking it though, he’s breaking Woohyun’s trust right under his nose. 

Sunggyu doesn’t realize that Woohyun will learn he isn’t worthy of his trust faster than he’d like. 

* * *

 

As per routine, Sunggyu drops in the coffee shop after school one day.  He’s met with the nice surprise of Sungjong chewing on the tip of his marker and scratching the top of his head while glaring at the Sudoku puzzle with thick concentration.  “Don’t think too hard. Your brain might fall off,” Sungjong hisses at him and Sunggyu responds with a smug smile. “No business today?”

“It seems like a lazy day,” Sungjong pats the space next to him.  Sungjong quickly hops over the counter top and gets started and Sunggyu’s hot chocolate cup while calling out from the kitchen.  “It’s an extra hard puzzle today, have fun with that one.  Not even you can crack it.” 

Sunggyu scoffs, “Are you doubting my skills?”  He hears Sungjong’s laugh in the background and frowns in response.  He returns quickly and places the cup of hot chocolate in front of his friend.  Sungjong turns around to make himself a drink as well, when both of them are surprised by the sound of tinkling bells and a familiar face walking into the shop.

“Sunggyu? Is that you? I thought I saw you from the window,” Woohyun sounds surprised to see Sunggyu sipping a cup of hot chocolate with a Sudoku puzzle laying open on his lap.   Sunggyu’s eyes flicker quickly between Woohyun and Sungjong frozen behind the counter.   _Shit._

Woohyun stops in his tracks.  “Sungjong?” 

Sunggyu feels his throat go dry.  He feels his stomach drop and slowly lifts his eyes to read Sungjong’s expression.   He starts out confused, Woohyun is a stranger to him after all.  But Sunggyu’s head feels heavy when he sees recognition forming in his eyes.  “Y-you?”  Sungjong’s voice is stricken with shock. He also struggles with what to call him.  He pulls his lips into a smile but pulls them back into a straight line quickly.  That makes Sunggyu’s heart hurt.  “What are you…why did you come here?”   

Woohyun darts his eyes between the two of them, and Sunggyu can see them water.  His voice is shaky when he speaks to Sunggyu, and he can hear the hurt.  He can see it in Woohyun’s eyes, too.  “You knew?” 

Sunggyu lowers his gaze, “I…did.” 

Woohyun swallows, but Sunggyu stills hears the quiver in his voice.  “And you didn’t tell me?”

Sunggyu opens his mouth to retaliate.  But he really doesn’t have an argument to give.  He can’t tell Woohyun that Sungjong’s a horrible person for what he did to him, because he’s not.  Sunggyu knows that now.  He can’t argue his case by putting Sungjong down.  Sungjong’s his friend now too.   Sungjong steps up for him, “I told him not too.”  He says bravely.  “I didn’t….I don’t want to see you, Woohyun.” He tests the name on his lips.

Sunggyu feels like shit when he sees the amount of pain in Woohyun’s eyes.  Woohyun looks from him to Sungjong and his voice is still shaky when he speaks.  “So is this where your loyalty lies?”  Sunggyu isn’t sure who he’s talking to.  To him, or to Sungjong, but he thinks it stings the both of them the same way. 

“He’s lying.”  Sunggyu speaks up.  “Sungjong….he didn’t know I knew you until recently. I didn’t want to tell you because I was afraid of losing you, Woohyun.  It’s not…please don’t blame Sungjong.”  He feels Sungjong squeeze his arm and dig his nails into his flesh through his thin school shirt. 

“That’s _enough_.”  Sungjong stamps his foot.  “I may not have told you directly,” He speaks first to Sunggyu, but then Sungjong’s voice becomes hard.  “But it’s true.  I don’t want to see Woohyun.  And I don’t want your friendship ruined because of me.”  Sungjong runs his fingers through his hair. His hard gaze is set on Woohyun,   “Don’t you think it means something, that the second he told me he knew you; I didn’t beg him to take me to you?”  Sungjong looks at Woohyun with cold eyes and it makes Sunggyu shiver.  “Woohyun.  I don’t love you anymore.  I did once, but not now.” 

Woohyun snarls, “This isn’t about love, this is about the fact that he… _both_ of you hid something so big from me,” Sunggyu can tell he is pissed, but most of all he can tell his is hurt.  “Who else knew?”

“No one!” he jumps quickly.  “No one but me, not even Myungsoo.  I swear.”

Sungjong steps up from behind the counter.  “You’re too angry to think calmly,” he tells Woohyun flatly.  “But you don’t want to say anything you’ll regret later.  I think everybody should go home and rest this off, talk in the morning.  Not now.”  He says it sternly, but Woohyun doesn’t bother to listen to him.

His voice becomes awful small again.  “Didn’t you even miss me?”  It’s a whisper, and Sunggyu sees Sungjong’s heart shatter in his eyes.  “We spent years together, I…I really loved you.” 

Sungjong shuts his eyes.  “No. I didn’t miss you.” 

Woohyun takes a step forward and reaches forward.   His hand is careful and slow, “You’re lying,” his voice is soft and his fingertips brush against the base of Sungjong’s jaw. “I know you are.” 

Sungjong swats his hand away.  “Stop it!” he snarls.  “Don’t come to me.”  Sungjong’s voice shakes and Sunggyu can already tell that he doesn’t mean his words.  “You don’t need me anymore, and I don’t need you.” Sungjong pauses to swallow a mouthful of air and to ensure the lump in his throat doesn’t become tears in his eyes, “You have that piece of shit still,”  Sunggyu assumes he most definitely means Myungsoo,  “and now you have Sunggyu-“

Woohyun’s expression hardens, and he scoffs “Well clearly Sunggyu doesn’t think that. Apparently to him finding one friend is the equivalent of losing another,”

“That’s not it!” Sunggyu exclaims desperately.  He swallows, this is gonna be one sucky confession.  But he guesses it has to be done this way.  “You said you loved Sungjong a lot, and the way you talked about finding him I…I just was afraid that when you did…you would…well…”  Sunggyu starts choking on his words. 

Woohyun takes a deep breath and scoffs, “Afraid?  Afraid of what?  You thought if I found Sungjong again that I wouldn’t want to be your friend?”  Woohyun looks angry and sad at the same time.   And Sunggyu decides he really doesn’t like that look on him.  Sungjong closes his eyes and look incredibly hurt too, he doesn’t like that look on him either. 

Sunggyu closes his eyes and takes a deep breath.  He starts out with a small voice, “That’s not what I meant.” 

Sungjong smiles softly, touches Sunggyu’s shoulder warmly and whispers, “You’re a very stupid boy, Nam Woohyun.” 

“Then what DID you mean?”  He chooses to ignore Sungjong. Woohyun’s raising his voice and when Sunggyu opens his eyes he sees tears and anger.  “How could you do this to me?  We were friends, weren’t we?  You said that it was okay if I looked for him! You told me I could!  But you do this? All because you were _jealous_?” 

Sunggyu’s heart aches and his words become loud, “Because I love you god dammit!” he screams.  Sunggyu doesn’t have the strength to look into Woohyun’s eyes anymore.   He doesn’t even have the strength to apologize to Sungjong.  He pushes past the both of them and leaves the sound of tinkling bells and a rush of cold air in his wake.

* * *

 

Sunggyu doesn’t really think of anywhere to go where no one will be able to find him.  He has a gut feeling if he goes home either Woohyun or Sungjong will come after him.   And after that embarrassing confession – he doesn’t really want to see Woohyun’s face ever again.

So obviously, he chooses the next best thing. 

He slurps up Ramen and winces at the heat scorching his tongue.   He sits at the front of a convenience store and sets his head on the table in between large bites of Ramen and sighs loudly.  “I feel like an Ahjussi,” he grumbles and lifts his head to take another slurp.

“Um, Sunggyu?”  Without bothering to lift his head, Sunggyu lifts his gaze to see Howon with a steaming bowl of fresh Ramen.  “Can I sit here?  It’s kinda full.”

“Oh, hey Howon,” Sunggyu lifts his head and gestures with his hand that Howon’s welcome while simultaneously taking a long slurp of Ramen.  It’s kind of awkward, Sunggyu never talks to Howon.  But Howon is keen on keeping a conversation going and Sunggyu doesn’t mind much.

“So what brings you here?”  He asks. 

“Just kinda bored, hungry,” Sunggyu shrugs, Howon doesn’t need the juicy details.  “You?” 

Howon swallows thickly, but Sunggyu doesn’t notice. “Same really,” he chuckles.  “Wanna hang out with me for a bit? I was kinda stood up by a few friends,” he laughs awkwardly. 

Something doesn’t quite feel right, but Sunggyu doesn’t push it.  From what he’s seen, Howon seems like a decent enough guy.  If he didn’t have girls groveling at his feet, Sunggyu really would think Howon could fit into their friend group. “Sure I guess,” he smiles. 

The two of them finish slurping up their Ramen and make small talk.  Howon laughs at the way Sunggyu talks about the evil Mrs. Han and his inhumane fan girls.  He even shares a couple horror stories that make Sunggyu shudder, “I guess being wrestling captain must suck,”

“It’s a blessing and a curse,” Howon stands up and stretches his arms out and tosses out both his and Sunggyu’s empty container, “Wanna take a walk around and see if there’s an arcade or something?” 

Sunggyu stands up and stretches, following Howon around the convenience store.  “So who stood you up?”  He asks, but seeing Howon’s expression darken he almost smacks himself for being inconsiderate. 

But, Howon laughs it off. “To be honest, it was me who stood up a couple people.  They weren’t exactly the nicest and I didn’t feel like hanging around.”

“Ah,” Sunggyu makes a noise as if he understands (but he really doesn’t, why not just tell them he couldn’t make it?  Wrestling captains are weird, he decides).  Sunggyu swings his arms around lazily and doesn’t really expect Howon to continue.

Surprisingly, he does.  “They’re not people from school, actually.  A couple people from other high schools that I got involved with and now I regret.”  Howon’s face looks upset and he nervously glances up at Sunggyu as if he’s expecting him to run off. 

Sunggyu is very confused as to why Howon’s pouring out his life story.   He assumes he just needs an outlet, and fortunately for him Sunggyu was the first person he could find.  “Well we all get involved with the wrong crowd sometimes,” Sunggyu briefly thinks of Woohyun and Sungjong but shakes the thought off as quick as it comes, “It’s not your fault.”

Howon smiles, “You think so?”  Sunggyu nods. “Wanna help me fix it then?” 

Sunggyu blinks, “Uh, and how am I supposed to do that?”  He suddenly feels a little nervous seeing the happy glow in Howon’s eyes.  Maybe he just walked into something he shouldn’t have.  “I don’t really think I’ll be of much help,” 

“I just need you to forgive me for this later, okay?”  Howon throws his arm around Sunggyu’s shoulder and though he can feel fear prickling under his skin, he nods anyway.  After all, he’s known Howon since middle school, he can’t be that bad of a person. 

That is, until Howon decides to call out, “Yah, Lee Howon! You’re one funny guy!”  He smacks Sunggyu roughly on the back so he coughs violently and pushes him to the ground before sprinting off as if his life depends on it. 

Sunggyu manages to stand up and before he can call out after Howon, someone’s hand is fisted into his collar and his head hits brick.  “So, you’re Howon?”  The stench of alcohol mixed with smoke is heavy and it makes Sunggyu’s eyes water. 

He attempts to open his mouth to answer, to say that the two-timing jerk Howon is probably halfway down the street by now.  But he can’t really do that, when someone’s fist is in his stomach and he keels over in pain.  “You think you can take our money and run, eh?”  The man’s voice rises and Sunggyu looks up to see a two other men circling around.  And scarily enough, one of them isn’t empty handed. 

“I’m not Howon!” he cries quickly, “Howon is the guy who-“His words are cut off with a baseball bat to his mouth and Sunggyu screams out.  He can taste iron in his mouth and he thinks he can even feel a tooth falling out.  Somebody grabs Sunggyu by his collar and yanks him to his feet while his buddy sends a baseball bat to his stomach.  

Sunggyu feels as if a stampede just crushed him and came back for a second round and lets out a low whimper.  He tries to open his mouth to argue back that he is _not_ Howon but his voice falters when the man with a baseball bat swings again.  

However, this time, Sunggyu manages to duck and with all the strength he can muster, pushes him until he falls flat on his ass.   It seems like his companions are heavily drunk so have a hard time grabbing Sunggyu again.  It gives him enough time to slip out of the alley and get as far away from the sound of angry voices fresh on his tail. 

But his stomach burns with every step he takes and it’s not far before he slips on his own two feet and lets out a grunt of pain.   Sunggyu almost cries when something pulls him up by the back of his shirt and that disgusting smell is fresh in his nose again.  “Think you can run away, kid?” 

Sunggyu watches with heavy fear as two men hold him down and one lifts the baseball bat high above his head.   He feels the breath being knocked out of his lungs when it smashes on the top of his head and his body feels heavy dropping on the sidewalk.  

Yet, despite all that, Sunggyu thinks he can hear Sungjong’s voice over the commotion anyway.  “Yah! Kim Sunggyu!” 

Then, he blacks out. 

* * *

 

Before Sunggyu opens his eyes, the first thing he’s hit with is that stupid hospital smell and he can’t help but groan.   And as soon as he groans, the second thing he’s hit with is a screech that sounds strikingly familiar to Dongwoo and a body that automatically crushes him.  “He’s awake!” 

Yup, that’s definitely Dongwoo.  “Yah,” Sunggyu chokes out, “Get off of me you idiot!”

Dongwoo pulls away immediately and Sunggyu finally opens his eyes to find his eyes red and cheeks stained with tears.  He also notices Dongwoo’s not the only visitor and also not the only one in that state.  He turns first to Sungyeol, “What happened?” 

He looks angry and his eyes are red too.  It looks as if Sungyeol hasn’t slept in days.  “What happened?  You piece of shit do you know what you did to me?”  Sungyeol screams like a banshee and Sunggyu winces.  “You have the nerve to ask what happened?”

“Well, considering I can’t remember, yea, I do.”  Sunggyu rolls his eyes. 

Myungsoo clears his throat and pushes past the emotional duo.  “Sungjong saw you collapse after some thug hit you in the head,” Myungsoo is upset.  Sunggyu can tell by his voice and he thinks it may only be part because he’s in the hospital and part something else. 

“I’m…sorry I didn’t tell you,” Sunggyu mumbles, Myungsoo’s eyes soften a little.

“That’s a story for-“Before Myungsoo can even finish his sentence he’s shoved out of a way by a certain coffee shop owner.  “Nice to see you again too,” he hisses.  

“You _idiot!_ ”  Sungjong screams anger bubbling in his eyes.  “What the hell did you do?  Why would you go in that part of town?  Don’t you know that’s home to one of the most dangerous gangs here?  You told me that Sungyeol kid was the stupid one!”

“You talk about me and THAT’S all you have to say?”  Sungyeol tries to push Sungjong back but he’s shoved so hard he lands on the empty hospital bed on the other side of the room.   Clearly, nobody messes with an angry Sungjong. 

“It’s not my fault!”  Sunggyu retaliates.  He tries to raise his voice but his throat feels impeccably dry.  “Can I get some water?” 

“No you cannot!”  Sungjong stamps his foot, “Not until you tell me why the hell you would do something so stupid?  What, did you think that Woohyun wouldn’t accept your confession? So you went on a suicide mission?” 

“Yah! Lee Sungjong! ” Sunggyu raises his voice anyway, even though his throat feels like it’s burning in the pits of hell. “This wasn’t a suicide mis-“Sungjong whacks him across the head and Sunggyu is having a hard time believing he’s even in the hospital right now.  Shouldn’t Sungjong be deported for abuse?

“I am your Hyung!”  He screeches, “And you think this is bad? Just you wait until the Prince gest his hands on you!” 

As if he did a tribal dance and called upon the devil himself, Woohyun barges through the door.  “He’s awake?” 

Sungjong smiles triumphantly giving Sunggyu one of those _oh-you-are-so-gonna-get-it_ looks.  “Yes, and he’s not even listening to anything I’m saying, you knock some sense into him and tell him never to try something so stupid again.” 

Sunggyu lets out a deep breath. He gives up on explaining shit to anyone. “So you guys are…cool again?”  He darts his eyes between Woohyun and Sungjong.  The two of them shuffle awkwardly. 

“Not cool really,” Myungsoo answers, pushing Sungjong aside and smiles smugly when he lands on the same hospital bed as Sungyeol, “But they’re working on it. And here’s your water,” Sunggyu gratefully takes the cup from Myungsoo and downs the cup in one gulp. 

He finally clears his throat, and opens his mouth to explain what really happened when he’s cut off, again.  But this time it’s by a pair of lips.   Sunggyu’s eyes widen and he feels his body go weak when he registers that Woohyun is kissing him.  When he pulls away and Sunggyu is looking into his brown eyes filled with love, Woohyun ruins the moment by screaming in his face.  “Why would you think about killing yourself?!” 

“I DID NOT THINK ABOUT KILLING MYSELF YOU BABBOONS.” Sunggyu screams finally. 

That successfully shuts them up.  “Oh.”  Sungjong mumbles.  He chuckles awkwardly when the room shoots him a glare.  “You should’ve said something earlier.”  Sunggyu smacks himself in the head, with friends like these, death might be a smarter choice.  “What _did_ happen then?”

Sunggyu turns red-faced and angry and recounts his adventures with Howon.  He is sure to include a nice collection of profanities about the wrestling captain and demands to see him the second he is released to give him a piece of his mind.   “Moral of the story,” he says, after all his anger is released, “Lee Howon is an asshole,” 

“You know this is actually a pretty anti-climactic way to get in a relationship,” Sungyeol deadpans. 

Sunggyu blinks, “What relationship?” 

“He just freaking kissed you!”  Myungsoo cries.

Sunggyu is silent for a moment, “Oh.”  Then it really dawns on him, _“Oh.”_  Suddenly his cheeks go all pink and he’s feeling a whole lot shyer than he did five minutes ago.   Woohyun takes a stool and pushes it to his bed while Myungsoo rounds up everyone out of the room to give them some _alone time_. 

“I thought I was gonna lose you,” Woohyun whispers, taking Sunggyu’s hand in his and stroking it gently.  Sunggyu can see tears forming at the corner of his eyes and reaches up to wipe them away.  Woohyun takes his hand instead though, and presses it against his mouth.

Sunggyu smiles, “When did you decide to get all greasy again?”  He snorts.  “Who was the one that knocked some sense into you?” 

Woohyun smiles, “Surprisingly, Sungjong.  We talked…a lot.  About a lot of things, and he was right about most of them, but that’s a long story, just let me be happy that you’re okay for now.”  Sunggyu let’s Woohyun run his fingers in his hair. 

“But what about your home planet? Don’t you have to go home?”  Woohyun hums, but continues to smile softly and massage Sunggyu’s scalp.  “And will your parents even be okay with this?  Wait will my parents be okay with this?  What if I tell my mom I’m dating an alien prince?  Oh my god my mom’s gonna-“

“Shut up,” Woohyun says. 

Sunggyu opens his mouth again to argue, but Woohyun shuts him up by himself.

With his lips.

Sunggyu doesn’t complain. 

 

 


End file.
